Pandora
by Raquelitaaa
Summary: The only thing that was important in that moment was the extreme hurt in her beautiful eyes that had once captivated him; and, if he didn’t feel like lying, still did. DMXDG DMXAG


_Pandora_

I got this idea while listening to my iPod on shuffle. It's not really original – well, the pairings might be – but I couldn't resist. I read into the "Asteria vs. Astoria" debate, and I personally like the spelling of "Asteria" more, so I've decided to use that spelling instead of the more common one, in case anyone gets confused.

**Disclaimer**: In no way do I own anything that you recognize. In fact, I think JKR has taken over the world, and we are all owned by her. XD

--

_I don't know how you charmed your way into my heart,  
And I don't know how you snuck your way into my arms.  
But I know that I'll regret what I did,  
And I know that I'll regret it forever as I throw my life away, Pandora.  
_"Pandora" by Madina Lake

--

"Draco, darling, I'm off to see about my dress for the wedding," Asteria Greengrass called from the foyer.

Draco Malfoy glanced up from the book in his hands toward the open drawing room doors. He caught sight of Asteria standing under the chandelier but didn't think her exclamation really called for a response, and a second later he heard the large front doors open and close behind his fiancé and her mother.

His eyes rested on the page he'd been reading and he frowned slightly. The wedding. He sighed deeply, the sound full of weariness and tinged with regret. For years his mother had been pestering him about settling down with a lovely pureblood witch who could take care of him like she had his father. His father, before his death, had insisted that Draco marry immediately so he could continue the Malfoy lineage. A few months after his mother urged him to start dating, when he had thought he found the girl that met both of their criteria, it turned out that she had been disinherited by her family for consorting with a Muggleborn wizard.

As if knowing he was thinking about her, Daphne Greengrass appeared in his drawing room with a quiet _pop!_

"Draco."

"Daphne."

They stared at each other for a few long, tense moments. He was the first to break eye contact. He could still feel her eyes boring into him, the hazel depths filled with equal amounts of passion and hatred. Why she did this to herself – to _both _of them – he would never understand. He knew he had hurt her. Hell, he had hurt himself when he told her she wasn't _good enough_, because he knew it wasn't true. But he had an inheritance of a million galleons and Malfoy Incorporated that would go into effect as soon as he married an upstanding, pureblooded witch, and Daphne was anything but upstanding, and Draco was too greedy to turn down that much money.

That selfishness didn't stop him from feeling insane amounts of regret when his thoughts drifted to the elder of the Greengrass sisters. He had broken her fiery spirit and her vulnerable heart with just one sentence, and he'd never forget the look in her eyes that day.

"I take it the brat has gone off to prepare for the 'wedding of the century'?" Daphne sneered while falling gracefully onto a window seat.

"She has," he responded, trying to keep his voice as aloof as possible. "I believe she went with your mother –"

He was interrupted by an enraged hiss coming from across the room. Daphne's eyes burned with absolute loathing. "_My _mother? I have no mother, Malfoy, remember? She's almost as dead to me as your father is to you."

Draco shifted uncomfortably, mentally bashing himself for bringing up the matriarch of the Greengrass family. There was no lost love between the mother and her wild daughter, and he knew their ruined relationship was partially Asteria's fault. When he learned of Daphne's disinheritance, she had screamed that her sister ruined everything.

He hadn't thought to ask exactly what Asteria had done, but he only assumed that it was a sisterly betrayal that would never allow them to become reconciled.

"Why are you here?" Draco asked bluntly, choosing to ignore her scathing comment about his father. The subject was still a bit touchy for him, but he knew she was just trying to get under his skin. Somehow or another she always succeeded, but he liked to act nonchalant until the very last second.

He had always been somewhat of a masochist, but before Daphne came along he would never let someone speak so crudely against him or his family. Yet the way she raged against him and his fucked up ways did nothing but turn him on.

"When will they return?" Daphne demanded.

"Do I look like I know how long a dress fitting takes?" Draco retorted.

Daphne jumped up out of the window seat and stalked over to his chair. She flung his book across the room where it knocked a painting off of the wall before hitting the ground. She grasped his blond locks in her hands and pulled his head back, her eyes boring into his once again.

"You're despicable. I can't believe you're going through with this wedding. I can't believe you're marrying _her_." Her voice was barely above a whisper, and despite the rage that shook her entire body, Draco saw the despair woven deep into her eyes.

"What would you have me do? Carry on with you and lose everything?" He questioned angrily. He was well aware that he sounded selfish, but he knew Daphne and knew she'd make the same choice he had if the roles were reversed.

"I wouldn't expect you to give up your _precious _galleons for love, Draco Malfoy. That would be too selfless. And besides, you don't have a romantic bone in your body. I just didn't expect you to marry my _sister_!" Daphne yelled at last, an angry blush forming on her cheeks.

"And who would you wish for me to marry? Hmm? Pansy? Millicent?" Draco asked calmly. Inside, he was a maelstrom of emotions ranging from fury toward her for thinking she could control him to shame for how he had destroyed her once cheerful spirit.

"Yes! I'd rather you run off and elope with Hermione fucking Granger than marry that little bitch!"

Draco stared up at the blonde woman. His scalp was on fire from where she was pulling his head back with a fistful of hair, but the pain barely registered. He had never seen her so upset before; not even when he had left her alone in her apartment that fateful day. The only thing that was important in that moment was the extreme hurt in her beautiful eyes that had once captivated him; and, if he didn't feel like lying, still did.

He wasn't sure how to react around this new Daphne. The last time he had seen her nearly three months ago she had been cold, a tad bitter, but she hid her fury well. He assumed the change had occurred when she learned that his wedding to Asteria was to be within the next month. He wasn't exactly thrilled about marrying the dull, spoiled version of Daphne, but he couldn't bring himself to part with so much money.

He had been raised greedy, and he had deluded himself to believe that once he had all of those galleons and become the head of the family company he'd finally feel fulfilled. It was such a pity, in his eyes, that he couldn't share that happiness with the woman he truly loved, but he deduced that everyone had to make a sacrifice or two to be truly content in life.

When he had voiced such an opinion to Daphne after he had said they would no longer be a couple, she scoffed at his narrow-mindedness and said, "So you would just throw everything that we have out the window for a fucking paycheck? You'd say, 'Oh, to bloody hell with Daphne's feelings as long as _I _am happy' I knew you were selfish, Draco, but I didn't think you were heartless."

He wasn't heartless. Rather, he didn't think he was. He knew how others perceived him, but all he wanted was to be happy, and he reasoned that if he were selfish for wanting that, then everyone else was as well. Now that he thought about it, though, he was beginning to see how wrong he was. He looked deep into the hazel eyes glaring down at him and felt the first pang of true desperation.

"I… Daphne, look. There is nothing I can do to change what has happened. You know if I could, I-"

Daphne interrupted him again, tears in her eyes and her voice wavering. "You would what, Draco? Say, 'Fuck it all, I love Daphne Greengrass with all of my heart? I'd give up billions of galleons to stay with her.'? We both know you'd never do that. I understand you want that money because you think it will make you happy, but Draco – I could make you happier than any amount of gold. No matter what your parents told you when you were younger, you will not be happy with a million galleons and a pretty girl hanging off of your arm."

"You don't know that! You don't know what it takes to make me happy, to make me feel content!" Draco hissed, finally losing his temper.

Daphne smirked and pulled his head back further. She slowly teased his neck with her tongue before biting down, reveling in the gasp that followed. "I don't know how to please you, Draco?" She whispered against his smooth neck, her breath causing goosebumps to develop.

Draco didn't respond. He _couldn't._ He gripped the arms of the chair, weakened by her seductive suckling. He couldn't – wouldn't – resist her. Not before, not now, and not ever.

Guilt was ripping him apart as she straddled him. He almost choked on the feeling. He couldn't remember a time where he felt this horrible. This was not the first time since they broke up that they had been together. He supposed he felt so bad because his wedding was looming over them. He also figured that this guilt was not the sole reason he felt like vomiting.

No, he knew the main cause of his unease, and it was not guilt. It was regret. A deep seeded, unhealthy dose of regret. It embedded itself in his bones as he stripped her of her clothes, it encased his brain as she removed his, and it burned through his heart as he fucked her.

"You will never forget me," she gasped into his ear, her hand once again grasping his hair. "Every time you fuck her, you'll think about me. _You'll wish it was me._" Her moans interrupted her speech as he grasped her breasts in his hands.

"Yes," he groaned, grinding his hips up into her roughly. He knew what she was saying was true. He had no reason to deny it. In fact, the night before as he and Asteria had made love he couldn't help but imagine Daphne underneath him.

"Every time you look at her you'll see me. And every time you think you're happy you'll remember how fucking _good _I made you feel every damn day we were together, and you'll regret ever…" she trailed off, her breaths hitching as she reached her climax only seconds before he did.

"You'll regret ever losing me," Daphne panted as she rested her head against his exposed collarbone.

Draco stared at the wall opposite of his chair, his scalp burning from where she ripped out his hair, his heart racing from both the exertions of sex and the words she spoke. His hands were still clenched around her hips, his fingernails digging painfully into her creamy skin. He didn't know what to say to her that would alleviate any of his remorse or any of her rage.

"I love you so fucking much it hurts, Draco. I want to erase you from my life completely, but every night I think about you and I cry. I can't get you out of my fucking head, and when I lay there all I think about is how you're in bed with my slut of a sister when you should be with _me._ You were mine, but precious Asteria always gets what she wants, and the night she saw you I knew I had lost you. I've never envied her as much as I do right now," she whispered so quietly that he could barely hear her above their loud breaths. "I hate myself for loving someone as cruel as you."

Draco looked down at the top of her blonde head and sighed. He was losing this battle; his resolve had weakened when she first popped into his drawing room, and now his guard was completely down. He did love her. He loved her more than he'd loved any other woman. He just couldn't bring himself to break his engagement. _I can learn to love Asteria, _he thought, _I just can't leave this entire place behind for Daphne. I wouldn't be happy. _He had a feeling his reasoning was fucked, but if he weren't here, he wouldn't know how to live, no matter if that life included the woman in his arms or not.

"I'm sorry, Daphne," he muttered against her silky locks. When he felt something wet touch his chest he thought she was kissing him again, but he soon realized that she was crying, her chest heaving and breathing ragged as if trying to hold back the heart wrenching sobs that started only a second later.

Draco held her close, not entirely sure how to comfort the woman whose heart he broke a second time. He knew she was silently asking him to come back to her, to throw everything out the window, and now that he had rejected her, she was broken once again. Thinking back on their relationship – and even before, when they were in school – he realized that he had never seen her cry. His eyes stung with his own tears at this realization, but he refused to let them fall. He felt absolutely disgusting for being the one to make her cry like that. He wanted to crawl out of his skin he felt so dirty.

The couple was still wrapped around each other when they heard the front door creak open. Daphne shot up from his lap, her eyes wide in horror, and she quickly pulled her clothes back on. She glanced at the closed drawing room door with a look of absolute loathing that, had she been able to conjure fire with her eyes alone, the whole room would be ablaze.

"You have to leave!" Draco hissed as he got dressed in record time. He tried to look collected as he sat down despite the fact that his face was red and his eyes dark with lust and anguish. Asteria wouldn't notice, though. She had never been observant, nor did she even care to look beyond the surface. Therefore, she wouldn't see the hopelessness in his eyes, and she would never see the torch he still carried for her exuberant sister.

"Draco, honey!" Asteria called from the foyer.

Draco cringed at her voice, so unlike her sister's, whose voice was as melodic as a sirens song. He yelled, "In the drawing room. I'll be out in a minute." He held his breath, hoping that she wouldn't enter, and when he heard her footsteps fading down the hallway he released the breath with a huge sigh.

He knew she wouldn't wait long for him. Impatience was a Greengrass trait that both sisters had inherited. He ran his shaking hand through his mussed hair and turned t Daphne with a blank face. She understood the look, though, and her tears fell harder. His heart broke into two at seeing how depressed she was. He couldn't let his mother down, though. She depended on him to be like his father, to take over the Malfoy business and support the family. And if he eloped with Daphne, he would not only be letting his mother down, but he'd lose the power he worked so hard to achieve. With yet another sigh he steeled himself for the heartache he knew would follow as he marched out of the room.

But before he exited the room he walked swiftly to where Daphne was once again shaking with fury and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her so roughly, so thoroughly, that he felt his lips bruising, and tasted blood. Their tongues battled each other for dominance. Her tears were smeared on his cheeks, and if he didn't control his emotions he felt as though her were going to cry too.

"Goodbye, Draco," Daphne cried quietly before Disapparating from his arms.

Draco felt like screaming. He hadn't felt this horrible since his father's death. He wanted to destroy the room, the manor, the entire Wizarding world. Deep down he knew he had just let his chance at happiness – the happiness that didn't come from wealth or material possessions, but from _love, _which was all he realized he really wanted now - slip out of his arms, and out of his life.

--

**Note: **Well, I started off knowing where I wanted this to go, but it turned into a completely different story. Haha. The song is more of a guy feeling guilty for cheating on his girlfriend, not guilty for leaving another girl for her sister. Oh well. I kinda like it. Hopefully you do as well, but in reality I'm just glad I got that out of my head because it has been brewing in there for quite a few months. There's a big chance I'll come and edit it a bit anyway. Your comments are always welcome. =)

Xoxo, Rachel


End file.
